Throwing the Flying Blade?

While Pakatan should not organise an overdose of rallies, BN should not antagonise the rakyat by implementing uncaring policies that burden the citizens.

COMMENT

In ancient China there was a weapon called the ‘Flying Blade’. A documentary even went so far as to propose a theory of the ‘Flying Guillotine’. This weapon consists of a blade in the shape of the old model ceiling fan with a cloth bag concealed in it and it is to be thrown from afar. When it hits a victim’s head, a mechanism will release the cloth bag and the victim’s head will fall into the bag.

To throw the ‘Flying Guillotine’, the assassin has to position himself on the rafters of the ceiling diagonally above the victim. It takes an exceptionally skilled assassin to hit the target, collect the victim’s head and escape into the darkness.

Concerning the throwing of the ‘Flying Blade’ at their opponents, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has been slightly off the mark these days.

The first case is in relation to the Black 505 rallies. The first of the series was held in Kelana Jaya on May 8 and that was the best. Overwhelming crowd attendance of over 100,000 coupled with an electrifying atmosphere.

The last one held in KL on June 22 was the worst. The mood of the people was lethargic and the attendance was small (below 50,000). This is due to overkill and people have become tired.

The haze at that time too played a factor but overall it is due to the fact that too many rallies were held too close to each other and therefore the novelty factor is lost.

The second case is in relation to the PR-friendly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) plus PR supporters who held a protest outside the Parliament grounds on June 24 to demand the resignation of the top Election Commission officials.

The protest is fine but there was no necessity for the protesters to lie down on the road. All they need to do was to handover their memorandum to one of the Pakatan MPs for the same to be forwarded to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Eventually Khalid Samad, the PAS Shah Alam MP came out to meet the protesters to collect the memorandum.

It would have been so much easier if that was done in the first place as the end result was also the same. One has to act wisely. If Khalid had been notified earlier, so much hassle could have been avoided.

In order to be effective, one has to strike only once at the right time. It is useless to keep hitting repetitively at the much-stronger opponent without getting the desired result as one will only get tired.

This is akin to kungfu wherein one hits the opponent’s legs or arms but still not killing the opponent.

To digress a little, to maim one’s opponent is to strike at the person’s carotid artery which is located at the neck and the person will thus be rendered immobile. Martial arts masters know of this. (The carotid artery gets its name from the Greek word ‘karos’ which means ‘deep sleep’ or ‘stupor’.)

A saying from De Balzac goes thus: ‘Power is not achieved by hitting often or by hitting hard but by hitting true.’

Bitter taste of Jonker Walk

Although PR and their supporters have made these two unwise moves, BN has managed to give PR a run for their money by coming up with an equally unwise move and that is to close the Jonker Walk night market in Malacca.

Pictures of the mainly Chinese traders protesting this move are highlighted in the Chinese papers and this leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

Although Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz said that this move has nothing to do with the Chinese vote swing to DAP in the recent 13th general election (as reported in a local English paper dated June 26, 2013), it is still a bad public relations move nonetheless, and can give a wrong impression to the Chinese as it came after calls by certain NGOs urging the powers-that-be to sideline the Chinese.

This idea should therefore be scrapped immediately for a win-win situation for both BN and the mainly Chinese traders.

Another matter that should be highlighted is the insistence of BN leaders to PR leaders to accept the general election results.

That applies both ways and therefore BN leaders must thus accept that the Chinese prefer Pakatan. It surely is not against the law to vote for Pakatan, is there?

Both sides should now focus on their respective roles – BN on good governance and PR on being a good opposition watchdog for check and balance.

It is time to put aside all politicking as the rakyat are tired of it because it has been non-stop politicking since March 8 five years ago.

While Pakatan should not organise an overdose of rallies, BN should not antagonise the rakyat by implementing uncaring policies that burden the citizens.

Both sides while trying to throw the Flying Blade at each other have ended up with a bit of a blunder and therefore everyone should now get back to the main focus of governance and that is to improve the lives of the citizens.

The next general election is still far away so it is time to stop energy-sapping and time-wasting politics. And stop throwing the Flying Blade!

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.